Cinematic Era: 1895 Vintage

Working men and women leave through the main gate of the Lumière factory in Lyon, France. Filmed on 22 March 1895, it is often referred to as the first real motion picture ever made, although Louis Le Prince's 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene pre-dated it by seven years. Three separate versions of this film exist, which differ from one another in numerous ways. The first version features a carriage drawn by one horse, while in the second version the carriage is drawn by two horses, and there is no carriage at all in the third version. The clothing style is also different between the three versions, demonstrating the different seasons in which each was filmed. This film was made in the 35 mm format with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and at a speed of 16 frames per second. At that rate, the 17 meters of film length provided a duration of 46 seconds, holding a total of 800 frames.

A gardener is watering his flowers, when a mischievous boy sneaks up behind his back, and puts a foot on the water hose. The gardener is surprised and looks into the nozzle to find out why the water has stopped coming. The boy then lifts his foot from the hose, whereby the water squirts up in the gardener's face. The gardener chases the boy, grips his ear and slaps him in his buttocks. The boy then runs away and the gardener continues his watering. Three separate versions of this film exist, this is the original, filmed by Louis Lumière.

Four men stand holding what appears to be a blanket, while one wearing a hat stands watching. A sixth man then runs towards them and attempts to jump into the blanket.

Félicien Trewey uses a basic prop to create comical hats and their accompanying caricatures.

A man and a kangaroo stand up in front of each other with boxing gloves, and simulate a boxing match on a theatre stage.

A father, a mother and a baby are sitting at a table, on a patio outside. Dad is feeding Baby her lunch, while Mum is serving tea.

A short film depicting the execution of Mary, Queen of the Scots. Mary is brought to the execution block and made to kneel down with her neck over it. The executioner lifts his axe ready to bring it down. After that frame Mary has been replaced by a dummy. The axe comes down and severs the head of the dummy from the body. The executioner picks up the head and shows it around for everyone else to see. One of the first camera tricks to be used in a movie.

While his aide continuously turns the handle of the bellows, keeping hot a small furnace in front of him, a blacksmith is pounding a piece of metal on an anvil, then plunges the shaft into a tub of water, causing a cloud of vapor in the process.

In very bad weather and a stormy sea, a small boat manned by two men is trying to leave the harbor of La Ciotat, while several people are watching them from the nearby pier.

While his aide continuously turns the handle of the bellows, keeping hot a small furnace in front of him, a farrier prepares a horse's hoof to receive a new shoe.

Pedestrian and horse-drawn vehicles traffic, across the Place des Cordeliers, in Lyon.

In a long, diaphanous skirt, held out by her hands with arms extended, Broadway dancer Annabelle Moore performs. Her dance emphasizes the movement of the flowing cloth. She moves to her right and left across an unadorned stage. Many of the prints were distributed in hand-tinted color.

The sinister mesmerist Svengali hypnotizes a group of people and compels them to perform various humorous acts in a Trilby segment from David Henderson's Aladdin, Jr. burlesque. Lost.

A man strolling in a city street is attacked by three assailants. A policeman comes to the rescue and the men struggle with each other.

A man, holding a baby up in his hands, is standing next to a fishbowl. The baby is trying, in vain, to catch a goldfish with her bare hands.

A young woman dancer with large, flowing robes, swirls round herself quickly, making her light robe flow around her like a butterfly's wings.

Scene from a Trilby-themed stage play. Lost.

A western short depicting the execution of a horse thief by a group of enraged cowboys. This film is considered to be lost.

In the background is a house. In the foreground, a groom holds the reins of a sleek black horse that stands in profile. A tall man, dressed in a black uniform, demonstrates how to mount the horse then encourages and tries to assist a man in white. The man in white keeps falling, and soon it's apparent that he's an putting on a show. His pratfalls become more elaborate and stylish. The horse stands patient. The little groom laughs to see such sport. And finally, the man in white finds a comic accommodation. The story, though brief, has a beginning, middle, and end.

Down the gangway, photographers leave the deck of a riverboat in large numbers.

The Leigh Sisters perform a risqué Trilby-inspired dance with an umbrella. Scene from David Henderson's Aladdin, Jr. burlesque. Lost.

A stationary camera, looking diagonally across a racetrack toward the infield, records the horses as they race past. Once they are out of view and the race is over, police officers run onto the infield. The crowd moves around.

Two men in white leotards and tights, and black slips over it, wrestle on a theatre stage.

Several little boys run along a pier, then jump into the ocean.

A policeman catches a pickpocket with the assistance of a passing a sailor.

Princess Ali, of Barnum and Bailey's circus, performs an Egyptian dance in the Edison Company's studio. As she dances, some musicians perform in the background to provide accompaniment.

Former lightweight boxer Billy Edwards, now a trainer and writer of the sport, takes on a challenger named Warwick in an exhibition match. The match is scheduled for five rounds of 20 seconds each. A large crowd has gathered behind the ring to watch the fight.

Directed by Birt Acres.

Incident at Clovelly Cottage, also known as Incident Outside Clovelly Cottage, Barnet, shot by Birt Acres and produced by Acres and his collaborator Robert W. Paul in March 1895, was the "first successful motion picture film made in Britain" Considered lost since only a few frames have survived.

A tiny fragment of an actuality film of Tom Merry (William Mechem), a 'lightning sketch' caricaturist performing his act for the camera and producing a large profile caricature of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The loss of the rest of the film has bequeathed us 6 seconds that are of Mechem standing next to the completed portrait and sadly, that is all there is. An early film made by Birt Acres for R.W. Paul. (see release information for further detail).

Two children, Ploetz and Larella, perform an Italian peasant dance.

The sinister mesmerist Svengali hypnotizes two characters, then dies abruptly in a Trilby segment from David Henderson's Aladdin, Jr. burlesque. Lost.

A photographer has his camera all set up to take a gentleman's picture. The subject checks his face in a hand mirror, and the photographer poses him. Just as the photographer is about to take the picture, the subject gets up to look at the camera more closely. The frustrated photographer soon becomes quite impatient.

The opening of the Kiel Canal in Germany by Kaiser Wilhelm II on 20 June 1895.

On 1 November 1895, the brothers Max and Emil Skladanowsky presented their pioneer film work and legendary Bioscop program in Berlin′s Wintergarten Theater. With live musical accompaniment, the compilation program included short film sequences with famous artists of the time: Italienischer Bauerntanz, Komisches Reck, Der Jongleur, Das boxende Känguruh, Kamarinskaja, Die Serpentintänzerin, Akrobatisches Potpourri, Ringkampf, and Apotheose, with the Skladanowsky brothers bowing to their audience.

Part of the Wintergartenprogramm.

A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring one dog jumping through hoops and another dancing in a costume, which was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme was identified as being from this film.

A butcher puts a full-grown live pig into his large box-like machine. Moments later, he draws out a full range of pork products, many already packaged for sale.

A small boy brings a plate of milk to a big cat, grooming itself.

Short film about the opening of the Kiel Canal in 1895. The Emperor arrives at the rail station.

An 1895 British short black and white silent comedy film featuring two drunken men and a boy squabbling in a small bar.

Eight circus performers known as the Grunato family perform their famous balancing act.

A group of men, identified as "Muslims of Saint-Louis," at the Exposition Ethnographique de L'Afrique Occidentale in Paris.

A man performs tricks on a theatre stage with a bowler hat and a billiards ball in equilibrium on his arms and body.

The participants are natives of Ceylon. Their dance is very interesting being so different from Western ideas of harmonies of motion.

An early Kinora demonstration film.

Pedestrian and various vehicles traffic on Place Bellecour, in Lyon.

Three dancers do a Russian folkloric step dance, facing the camera, in traditional clothes, fur hats and leather boots.

The two inventors of the Bioskop, a sort of magic lantern that projected images so fast as to give the illusion of movement, bow to the camera at both sides of an empty screen. The scene was shown in continuity, at the end of the session, as if the producers and directors of the session were beading the public a farewell.

Samoan Islanders from Barnum & Bailey's Circus perform a dance.

Lost film by Kazimierz Prószyński. A shot of people walking on Franciscan Street.

A short of Mr. Grundy dancing. He's a Black man in a jockey outfit and there's someone in a horse costume dancing next to him.

A Senegalese woman carries a child on her back at the Exposition Ethnographique de l'Afrique Occidentale in Paris.

Two men, arguing about the content of a newspaper article, come to blows.

By Fiji Islanders. A peculiar dance by genuine artists, dressed or rather undressed, in their native garb. The revel takes its name from the paddles they hold in their hands.

Four men at work in a forge. The uses hammers and and anvil to beat metal.

A Black man waling at the Exposition Ethnographique de l'Afrique Occidentale in Paris.

A lost film of two boxers.

Directed by W.K.L Dickson.

A native dance peculiar to India. Very odd and interesting. Strange costumes and stranger motions.